Three-strikes law alterations likely to qualify for November ballot

The newly proposed three-strikes initiative to scale back California's tough sentencing law has gotten opposing reactions from two local district attorneys.

Supporters, who submitted more than enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, bagged the endorsement of the measure by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.

However, San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos is not one of those supporters.

"I don't think this is necessary," Ramos said. "All of the district attorneys that I know, we use our discretion. We don't file three strikes on every person. We take a look at every record."

Supporters of the initiative point out that about 26 states have three-strikes laws, but California is the only one that allows prosecutors to charge any felony as a third strike, which carries a sentence of 25-years-to-life.

The proposed measure would reserve the toughest penalty - 25 years to life - for the baddest of the bad. It would allow only certain hard-core criminals, including murderers, rapists and child molesters, to be put away for life for any felony offense, including shoplifting, while restricting the third strike to a serious or violent felony for everyone else.

Under the existing law, offenders who have committed such relatively minor third strikes as stealing a pair of socks, attempting to break into a soup kitchen to get something to eat and forging a check for $146 at Nordstrom have been sentenced to life in prison.

The initiative is modeled on Cooley's attempt in 2006 to modify the law and his long-standing policy to rarely seek a third strike unless the offense is a violent or serious crime.

San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos.

"The Three Strikes Reform Act is right for California," Cooley said in a written statement.

"It will ensure that the punishment fits the crime. Dangerous recidivist criminals will remain behind bars for life, and our overflowing prisons will not be clogged with inmates who pose no risk to public safety."

Ramos says the three-strikes provision, which increases punishment significantly with the third conviction of a crimes, is working.

"With all due respect to my friend Steve Cooley, I don't think we need to touch three-strikes," he said.

"First, the FBI statistics in the last couple of years for serious and violent felonies have been reduced by putting the worst of the worst in state prisons.

"Secondly, when three-strikes came out in 1994, we had hundreds of three-strikes cases. These were career criminals who are now in state prisons. Fast forward to now, three-strikes cases have gone down because career criminals are no longer committing crimes.

Jennifer E. Walsh, professor of political science at Azusa Pacific University and an expert on three-strikes, said her research in the three-strikes law indicates it is effective to combat crime.

"The three-strikes law as it's been implemented really does weed out the lesser offenders," she said. "That's because prosecutors have a lot of discretion under the law to select only those offenders considered a threat to public safety.

"Judges also have the discretion to weed out offenders they consider low risk. So we have a mechanism to weed out those not deserving of full sentences."

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said revising California's law would save state taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year initially and up to $100 million a year in the long run, largely in reduced prison and parole costs.

Advocates predict the savings will prove persuasive, particularly with critical swing voters, though they also plan to frame the campaign in terms of public safety and fairness

A previous measure in 2004 failed by about 3 percentage points after a last-minute media blitz by then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Gov. Pete Wilson.

That measure, Proposition 66, sought to limit felonies that trigger a third strike to violent or serious crimes in every case.

The proposed initiative was crafted by a group of Stanford University law professors and backed by the New York-based NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

George Soros, a prominent supporter of liberal causes, has donated $500,000 to the campaign.

The origin of the Three Strikes Law was propelled by public outrage following several high-profile murders committed by ex-felons. The most notorious case was the strangling of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped in 1993 from her Petaluma home. It was passed by both the Legislature and the voters in 1994.

The current initiative's petitions were signed by more than 830,000 voters - far more than the 504,760 needed. Elections officials are expected to count the signatures and announce whether the initiative officially qualified by May 12.